The Burdens of Fanfiction
by SillyQuill
Summary: Yami has a hit of inspiration that just can't wait for school to be over. Becoming more entrenched in the world of fanfiction, will Yami be able to emerge from this twisted new place he finds himself in, or will he drag others down with him too? Crack.
1. Inspiration Lands A Solid Hit

**This fic is dedicated to everyone who's addicted to fanfiction.**

**Even though I did my best, I'm worried that I made Yami a little OOC. Hopefully, I'm just being overly critical of myself, but the Pharaoh isn't really the type to fit well in a light-hearted, almost-parody type fic. So, if he is OOC, I am extremely sorry. (It's not as bad as when I'd envisioned Seto Kaiba as being the main character.) **

**Anyway, this is just something I thought up when I was in school, and I hope everyone here gets a kick out of it. And, just so you know, there's a minor breaking of the fourth dimension (go to my profile under 'spontaneous facts' if you don't know what that is). Also, there is the use of the 's-word,' but I didn't see it as being enough to warrant an upping of the rating.**

**I don't own ****Yugioh!****. **

It was fifth period at Domino High, Yami's psychology class. Well, technically it was now sociology since the semesters had changed, but everyone still called it psych. It was the only class he and Yugi weren't able to be together in, which was kind of hard on the two after having spent so long in the same body together.

The class was supposed to be doing something on the computers. Yami had heard the words, "Powerpoint… individually… due Thursday… directions on the net…," but Yami was busy thinking of something completely different.

The sight of all the computers in the lab being used as the psych classroom had Yami figuratively and literally on the edge of his seat, waiting for the command to—

"Alright, everyone, let's get to it!" Mr. Bronze directed, clapping his hands in emphasis.

Rolling his eyes, Yami did his best to hurry to the computer closest to him without giving the impression of rushing. When he reached it, his fingers were already flying over the keyboard, logging him in before he even sat down. Yami was ready to bet that he could give even Kaiba a run for his money when it came to his recently developed typing skills.

Okay, maybe he wasn't _that_ good, and Kaiba did have a _hell_ of a lot of money to run with.

Anyway, now he had to wait for the out-of-date, over-stressed system to boot up.

_Great,_ he sarcastically quipped in his mind. If the stupid computer didn't hurry up, Yami knew he was going to lose the idea that had popped into his head.

He ground his teeth. He wished he was at home, where the laptop Solomon Moto had given him actually _worked_.

The computer continued logging on at its own, snail's pace, making Yami fidget, bouncing his knee feverishly up and down and obsessively tapping his fingers against his cheek.

So many things had come into Yami's sights and abilities once he'd gained his own body, but certain things had definitely stuck out, highlighting Yami's new life that was now completely his own.

_Let's see. Should I make it Shuichi-bashing fic, or maybe a yaoi? No, remember, you can't write yaoi in case anyone ever finds out that it's you writing this stuff. Okay, so something to do with bashing Shuichi… maybe I could have Eiri dump him and run away with Hiro or Tohma? Hell, I could really break his heart and get Eiri and Ryuichi together._

Yami smiled cruelly to himself. He didn't mind Shuichi _that_ much, he actually reminded Yami of what a child of Joey's and Yugi's would turn out like.

_Now, that would make a good fic. Wonder if anyone's done a JoeyxYugi mpreg? But, that would be yaoi again. Damn it! _

…_I could do that idea Bakura had for "Death Note," the one with Ryuk discovering applesauce that he said I could use? That would be the first humor fic that I published. Hmm. It would be an interesting addition to my range…_

_But, that wouldn't be _my_ idea…_

_Shit!_

"Yami? What did you just say?" Mr. Bronze asked from behind him.

"I don't believe I meant to say anything aloud, Mr. Bronze," Yami responded, distantly, just barely glancing over his shoulder at the teacher.

"Well, whether you meant to say it aloud or not, I don't want to hear any more expletives in my class again, got it?" Mr. Bronze persisted.

"Yes, sir," Yami responded mildly, turning back to the computer screen with a blank mind.

_Oh, no. I've completely lost any idea as to what I was going to write! NO!_

If Yami were in Yugi's place he felt he just might start crying.

That was it. For Christmas, he was _so_ asking for a voice recorder so that he could have a log of every _bloody_ thought he had in regards to fanfiction. No excuses for lost ideas then. Nope.

Every fanfiction writer should be issued a voice recorder upon joining, as well as about a hundred blank discs on which to back everything up on. Yami had actually cried angry, wretched sobs when, several months ago, he had shut down his computer without saving the chapter he'd spent hours working on and the whole of his day's work had been wiped away as if it had never existed.

Grampa Moto had comforted him that the chapter would probably turn out even better when Yami rewrote it, and Yugi had reminded him that the readers could wait just a little longer for an update. Neither of them had done much to lift Yami's spirits, but at least they'd tried… Yami guessed.

Let's see an anime character, or any character at all, put up with a disappointment like _that,_ and survive it wholly unscathed…

_Wait a minute…_

"I got it!" Yami shouted, springing up from his seat.

"Yami, what is going on? Why are you—?"

"I'm not feeling well, Mr. Bronze. I'm going home," Yami announced, hurriedly stumbling over seats and desks on his way to his backpack.

"You don't look sick in the least, Yami," Mr. Bronze pointed out, narrowing his eyes suspiciously.

"Uh, well… Bye!" Yami made a mad dash for the door.

"Mr. Moto!" he heard yelled after him as he ran down the hall and around the corner, to freedom, to his beloved laptop, to fanfiction.

**Thanks for reading! The second chapter takes up the night after Yami runs out.**

**Can you believe it? There is only a single mpreg fic between Joey and Yugi on this site, and it's in Spanish. I'm shocked, incredibly so, as well as amused ^-^. I mean, if you can get Seto Kaiba pregnant by various people, you could at least get Yugi pregnant by Wheeler more often, don't you think? (Don't flame for this last comment. It was all meant in good fun.)**


	2. It's An Addiction

**Again, beware of out of character Pharaohs.**

"Hello, Yugi," Grampa Moto greeted, coming up from closing down the shop and walking into his grandson's room.

"Hi, Grampa." Yugi turned away from the homework laid out on his desk to face his grandfather. "Is anything the matter?" he asked, noticing the distracted, somewhat worried look on Solomon's face.

"Well, not really, I guess… Perhaps a bit. I got a call from the school that Yami ran out of his fifth period class and then skipped the rest of the day. Did you know about this?"

"Yeah, I noticed that he was gone," Yugi admitted, feeling a bit guilty for not confessing earlier to Yami's truancy.

"…Is it just me, Yugi, or does something seem to be bothering him?" Solomon continued, sitting down on the bed, taking off his cap and playing with it. "Cause, if there is, I don't know if I'll be able to help him with it. You might, though." His grandfather looked up hopefully at Yugi, seeming to beg something of him.

"Well… yeas, there _is_ something bothering him, but it's not something terribly serious. Not to anyone but him, anyway," Yugi said cautiously. _Him and the few fans he has, that is,_ Yugi amended in his mind. "I'll talk to him about it if you like, Grampa, but I don't think it will help much."

"…Is it that fanfiction thing again?" Solomon asked, slightly snappishly. He'd been through the fanfiction gamut again and again with the past Pharaoh, thinking that the last time he'd finally been able to get through to him the idea that school and home-life came before fanfiction, but apparently he hadn't. Fanfiction still had priority in Yami's mind.

"Yugi, you do know that I don't want to do anything such as berating the past ruler of Egypt, but something really must be done!"

"I know, Grampa. Really, I'll talk to him after dinner," Yugi promised.

"Will Yami be coming down to eat?" Solomon asked tiredly.

"Most likely not." Yugi winced. "If he ran out of school to work on a fic, he's probably not going to be so much as taking a bathroom break for the next several hours."

Grampa Moto grunted. "That can't be healthy," he mumbled under his breath before leaving his grandson to his studies.

Later that evening, Yugi poked his head into Yami's room. The only light came from the harsh white illumination of the screen of Yami's beloved laptop. Yami himself had his face stuck in the garish glow, eyes bloodshot, wide open, and slightly glazed over as he typed along, occasionally stopping to read what he'd written, mouthing along as he made his way across and down the page.

"Yami?" Yugi gently called.

"Shh!" was his harsh reply.

"Uh, are you okay—?"

"No! Shhhhhhhhhhhhhh." Yami leaned even closer into the screen. "I'm on a roll, Yugi," Yami whispered feverishly. "Please… don't interrupt."

The _clicking_ and _clacking_ of the keys being depressed started up again even faster than before.

Yugi came in and sat down on Yami's bed, just as Solomon had done with him a few hours previously.

"Do you want me to bring you something to eat?" he tried again.

"Noooooooooooooo," Yami drew out. "I'm busy, busy, busy," he babbled.

"Yami, you have Grampa worried," Yugi informed him.

…

"Yami?"

"Yugi, I really need to finish this up, alright?" Yami said in a rush, determined to publish _that night_.

"Yami, you're _addicted_."

The typing paused for a moment and Yugi thought he'd finally broken through the foggy cloud of fanfiction.

But, then Yami muttered, "Stupid spell-check; that is _not_ a fragment sentence." The typing began again.

"_Yami!_" Yugi quickly bit out, calling for his attention.

Yami flinched into his already hunched shoulders, before slowly, _slowly_ spinning around in his desk chair. "What?" he asked, almost clueless, but not quite.

"Yami, my grampa got a call from the school about you skipping, and I'm pretty sure when your grades come that they're going to reflect how obsessed you've become with _this._" He waved his hand in the vague direction of the laptop. "Grampa might even have to take it away if you keep this up. It's not healthy, Yami."

Yugi sort of understood that having something to cling onto in this new, different time was important for Yami to feel at home. But, this was _nuts!_

"Would Solomon really take my laptop away?" Yami asked, trying to seem nonchalant about the whole thing, but failing.

Yugi sighed, rubbing the back of his neck. "Probably not, but—"

"Then, there's nothing to worry about," Yami said quickly, twirling his chair back around and continuing on as if Yugi had never interrupted.

Yugi groaned, realizing that he had no choice but to admit defeat. He stood up and made his way wearily to the door.

"At least turn a light on before you go blind," was the last thing Yugi said before closing Yami back in with his creepy passion.

For the next several hours, Yami worked on and finished his story, published it, then compulsively checked his email for almost another full hour, praying for a review.

The next morning, Yami came downstairs looking like the living dead. His face was waxen, his eyes were set off by purple bags beneath them, and all his muscles were worn out and lax, causing him to shuffle along like a zombie.

Sitting down at the breakfast table, he realized that all the other members of the household were looking at him, almost as if they were scared of him.

"Rough night," he thought he heard Yugi's mom murmur.

After a moment, once things had gotten back to what they had been before he'd arrived, he turned to Yugi sitting beside him.

"Yugi," he waited until the other boy looked at him.

"I think you may be right about fanfiction."

"You mean you're going to take a break from it?" Yugi asked.

"Uh, no," Yami muttered, not looking at him. "I'm just agreeing that it's addictive, not that I'll be giving it up." A blush came to his pale cheeks and he chewed a bit on his lower lips as he waited for Yugi to respond.

"Yami… you're sick." With that, Yugi got up and left Yami sitting with Solomon at the breakfast table.

"Well, at least _I_ get reviews!" Yami shouted after him. "_So, there!_"

**Thanks for reading!**

**I wanted to write something that most of the people on this site could relate to. It was originally just going to be a oneshot, but oneshots and I have a history that is not very magnanimous in nature, so I decided to add on another chapter that would show the desperation that can overtake some of us fanfiction writers.**


	3. The Flame, It Burns!

**This fic just seems to get crackier and crackier as it goes on. And, yes, it is apparently going on. Warning: the fourth wall has been broken by this chapter's ending. Also, the rating was upped to 'Teen' for the mention of certain banners (you'll see what I mean).**

Yugi ran to Yami's room when he heard the scream.

"Yugi, what's going on?" he heard his gramps yell at him from down in the shop.

"I don't know!" he shouted back.

Yugi bust through into Yami's room, bruising his left knee against the door and his right elbow on the jamb. "What happened? What's wrong?"

Yami was wheeling around the room, throwing and kicking at everything that got in his way, slamming his closet door closed only to open it and slam it again, and so on and so on. Tears were streaming down his face and he was still emitting a banshee's wail from his wide open maw.

"Yami, what's the matter?" Yugi asked looking around for whatever had upset him. The room was a mess by now, but that was all that was out of place.

Yami threw a vague hand dramatically in the direction of the area across the room where his laptop was precariously set on a pile of school books.

Yugi blinked a couple of times, thinking that maybe a pornographic banner had popped up and offended the Pharaoh's millennia-old sensibilities or something like that, maybe a male enhancement advertisement. But, all Yugi could see was Yami's open email account.

Cautiously, Yugi moved across the room and picked up the laptop from its shaky placement to set it… There was no where to set it. Its normal home on the desk under the window was trashed, and so was every other feasible, steady surface. Yugi finally had to set it on the floor.

He caught sight of the fanfiction links imbedded into the email. Yugi didn't even try to hide his groan of vexation. _Fanfiction again._ Another thought followed quickly on the heels of the first: _What else would it be anymore?_

Yugi sat down in front of the laptop and began to read. He might as well, just to see what had sent Yami into his most recent tizzy.

However, after reading the Review Alert, for that was what had been up on the screen, Yugi could see why this fit was so dire.

The person who'd reviewed absolutely bashed the story and bashed Yami to the nth degree, and all of that for no actual reason that Yugi could find. They were just being a jerk for the sake of being a jerk.

Yugi flinched as Yami dropped down onto his bed, causing the springs to screech and grind.

"Isn't it awful?" Yami asked after a moment, his face burrowed into his pillow.

"Yes, but… I thought you stayed up a whole night just waiting for one person to read and review your—"

"A _review!_ Not a _flame! _There's a difference, Yugi!" the Pharaoh squealed in exasperation. After all, how could Yugi not see that the one was _nothing_ like the other?

"Oh, _come on_, Yami. No, there's not—"

"Yes, there _is_. A flame does nothing but strive to insult and degrade the author of the story. It doesn't contribute anything to the creative process, not even constructive criticism. They're just disrespectembodied, Yugi." Yami flopped his head back onto the bed, energy expended after explaining the complexities of reviews.

"…It wasn't that bad of a review, I thought," Yugi hesitantly began, trying not to wince as he lied. "Yami, you can't let something as small as this follow you around. Who cares what they think—"

"I care," Yami snapped through the pillow.

"But, you _shouldn't—_"

"_Yes, I should!_" The zealotry in his statement wasn't muffled by the pillow.

After a moment of staring incredulously at the lump of hair buried in the bedding, Yugi left Yami's room in disgust as he seemed to be doing more and more recently. Life in the Moto household was starting to be divided in terms of 'before fanfiction' and 'after fanfiction.'

_But, this is what he likes_, Yugi thought, feeling a twinge of guilt at being the one to stick the Pharaoh in this time with him. _Maybe I should support him in this more…_

_I could give him a review!_

The thought suddenly popped into Yugi's mind just out of the blue, or maybe not so _bluey_. That was what Yami wanted after all: people reading and telling him what they liked about it. Yugi could do that.

Yami didn't allow Anonymous Review (because he was trying to prevent the exact sort of review that he'd just been given), so Yugi would have to join the site in order to give Yami feedback.

Sitting down at his own computer in his own room, Yugi navigated to the fanfiction site for the first time on his own.

The process of getting an account was easy. Easier even than getting a hotmail account. Yugi entered in all the relevant stuff such as his email address and password, and he even read through the privacy policy and laughed when he had to confirm that, yes, he was over thirteen, though just barely.

A smile lit up Yugi's face. Thinking of all the other call signs he'd read over Yami's shoulder, he knew the perfect one for himself.

* * *

Yugi was cheerful when he went to check on Yami a little later. "How are you doing?"

Yami had finally calmed down to put his room into slightly better order than it had been in. His laptop was back on the desk again, at least. Everything else was still in fairly chaotic disarray, Yugi supposed.

"Uh, yeah, I'm better… I got another review, well, a _real_ review," Yami said carefully. His amethyst eyes glided over towards Yugi with a slightly alarmed look trying to remain hidden within them.

Yami's behavior was confusing, but Yugi ignored it just as he'd learned to ignore most of Yami's newly developed peculiarities. "And, what did it say?" he asked leadingly.

"Oh, you know, 'great job,' 'keep up the good work,' 'don't let those rude people get to you.' Your average encouragement."

Yugi felt his jaw dropping a little. Yami had just thrown the tantrum of the century over one review, but now another one, infinitely kinder than the first, barely made a blip on his radar? That was just ludicrous!

"Yugi… do you have any idea what 'YxY' means?" Yami slowly asked.

Yugi frowned. "How did you know it was me?" 'YxY' was the penname Yugi had chosen for when he signed up at FanFiction.

"Yugi, do you know what it means?" Yami repeated, trying to decide between being relieved that Yugi was clearly oblivious and worried that he was so out of tune with what was going on around him.

"I just thought that it might mean 'Yami and Yugi' or vice versa," Yugi answered, brows still lowered, not understanding.

"It does mean that, sort of…"

"'Sort of'?"

Yami just looked at Yugi for a moment, willing him to get it.

For the second time that day, Grampa Moto looked up at the ceiling as a scream sounded from above. He sighed. Apparently fanfiction had gotten to Yugi, too.

The few customers in the store had also looked up and then over to the shopkeeper as the screaming turned to shouting between the two boys upstairs, one of them still obviously horrified.

"Trust me," Grampa started, "you don't want to know."

**Thanks for reading! (I have absolutely nothing against YxY, except as Yugi's penname when he doesn't have a clue.) **

**For now, I'm going to keep this labeled as 'complete,' but that could change if I keep getting ideas that continue it. I have a blog started (the link is in my profile, clearly labeled near the end (it's not an excessively long profile)), and if I make a decision, it will be posted there first thing. **

**And, unlike Yami, I do allow Anonymous Reviews, hint, hint.**


	4. Noob

**Just like I said on my blog, I've decided to continue this fic! Yay! I've just grown too fond of it to let it sit there. A few other reasons exist, but rather than take up time here, I've put them up on my blog (the link's in my profile if you're interested).**

"Okay, so the first thing we're going to do is change your pen name," Yami said, watching Yugi _very carefully _out of the corner of his eye.

"I didn't know! Just let it go, Yami," Yugi quickly said, turning away to cross his arms and pout. _It was __**not**__ his fault! It was the fault of those yaoi-obsessed fangirls. _"Sick, twisted freaks," he muttered to himself. Yami overheard and wondered if Yugi was talking about himself.

Yami knew it was really just a mistake on Yugi's part, and a well-meant one, but that didn't stop him from locking his bedroom door every night since that little incidence.

Grampa Moto had come up once the customers had cleared out and had asked what the hell they'd been doing, screaming like banshees and scaring everyone from the shop. The two had still been shrieking and yelling at each other, with Yami having placed his desk chair between them, and the only thing that the old man had been able to make out was that it involved that pesky fanfiction and something called '_yowee_.' Solomon had ended up backing slowly out of the door and leaving them to it, 'cause, frankly, he didn't want to know. He _really_ didn't.

Yugi and Yami had spent a few days being weird with each other, but then Yami had finally gotten over the yuck-factor and decided to help solve the problem rather than be a part of it. That was what Yami was trying to do now, _solve_ the problem. Specifically the 'YxY' problem.

"Do you think you'll ever be writing fanfiction?" Yami asked, trying to lead Yugi into thinking up a good pen name.

"Well, no. Mostly I think I'll just be reading and reviewing your stuff." Yugi shrugged, still feeling miffed at how Yami had been treating him over the past week.

"Okay. That means we just won't be putting anything in regards to your writing style in your name. You could always change it later, though I wouldn't recommend it."

"Why not?"

"'Cause, it's annoying to everyone else! If you change your name a bunch, no one recognizes you after a while. The whole point of your bloody user name _is_ for people to be able to recognize you. Ugh. Stupid noobs."

After a moment, Yugi snorted. "Did you just say 'noobs?' Where did you learn that term?" Yugi was pretty sure he didn't learn it from their friends. The only one who would ever call someone something like that would be Joey, but he'd be more likely to just call them a dumbass.

"The Internet," Yami responded in a 'uh, der' tone.

Yugi chuckled a little. "Okay. How did you choose your pen name?"

"I avoided clichés, and thought up something just personal enough that it had meaning, but not so much that it meant anything to anyone else," Yami stated, nodding his head in punctuation.

"What could be personal to both you and everyone else?" Yugi asked, frowning a little.

"World peace? A love for dueling? Kittens?" Yami listed.

"…Uh huh." _And, he thinks __**I'm **__messed up?_

Yami glared over his shoulder at Yugi. "Kittens are very personal, Yugi."

"I didn't say they weren't." Yugi looked away for a moment to gather his composure. "But, wouldn't you consider hair to be a universally personal thing?"

"Yes, but my… _our_ hair is special in such a way that it wouldn't be particularly personal to anyone else. Plus, between the two of us, I'm the only who's been a pharaoh, so my name works out just fine and is unique to me."

While this was true, Yugi still thought that Yami's name was a little… odd. But, he was right; no one else would ever call themselves 'Hair Phar…Oah.' No one in their right mind, anyway.

"That still doesn't help me much with my pen name." Both Yugi and Yami chewed on their bottom lips, _respectively_ of course.

"Well, let's just start eliminating stuff," Yami suggested. He ticked up a finger. "Nothing to do with baby pandas."

Yugi shivered and winced. "No. Definitely eliminate that."

"We could do something in regards to dueling if we can't think of anything else," Yami conceded, drawing a blank.

"Maybe we could take a Duel Monster and translate their name to a different language," Yugi suggested. "Like, take the Dark Magician and translate it to, I don't know, Russian. maybe?"

"Naw. Some girl already did that in one of her fics. Something like Temnyĭ Mag was the end result. But, I looked it up, and it turns out 'Temnyĭ' doesn't translate to anything. Bloody noob."

Yugi gave Yami a considering glance. He seemed to be having way too much fun with his new word.

He sighed, ready to give up. "Let's just pick something so that my current name will change. I can always figure out something later, right?"

"Mm, yeah," Yami reluctantly replied. Yugi could practically hear him thinking, _Noob_.

'Well, can you think of anything?" Yugi shouted, exasperated. He didn't want to get sucked into this like Yami was; he'd just wanted to bolster Yami's spirits, and _this_ was where it landed him. It was all the fangirls' faults.

"Sorry for trying to help!" Yami shouted back. "It's just that has enough problems as it is without everyone constantly changing their name and their avatar, not to mention the profiles that are so long they could consume the Net on their own, or the seemingly regular "updates" the site makes to itself that only fuck everyone else up!"

Yugi blinked a few times. "Jeez, Yami. If the site's that crappy, why do you stay on it?"

"Because, there's _fanfiction!_" Yami explained plaintively. He sighed through his nose. "I guess it's really not _that_ bad," he conceded. "But, did they really need to change the layout of the user menu? And, what's with the review replies!"

"Yami, remember, I have no idea what you're talking about yet," Yugi warned.

"I know, I know." Yami waved his hand dismissively. "But, you _will_."

Deciding that sounded decisively ominous in ways that Yugi didn't want to explore just yet, he leaned over and clicked the edit button next to his deceptively smutty pen name.

"Just wait 'til you publish a chapter and all of the breaks disappear," Yami mumbled into his chest.

"Uh, yeah, I'll do that," Yugi soothed, his fingers typing in what he decided his new name would be. When he clicked the 'Update Pen Name' button, Yami finally came back to himself and just stared at Yugi's newest choice.

"If you don't like it, you only have yourself to blame," was all Yugi had to say in defense of his choice.

"…It's stupid… but, I like it," Yami sort of complimented.

"_Thanks_."

"No, really."

"I figured I should find something to compete with the ridiculousness of 'Hair Phar…Oah.'"

"Well, at least mine isn't a lie."

"Shut up and deal with it!"

Spinning around in his desk chair, Yami turned around just in time to see 'Duel Noob' angrily stomping from the room.

"Well, he is noob, if not in regards to dueling," Yami rationalized to himself. "So, I guess it all works out. Too bad for him I'm never going to let him change it."

After a moment of thought, he got out of his chair and went over to his door frame, from which he yelled in the direction of Yugi's shut bedroom door, "And, there is _nothing_ ridiculous about 'Hair Phar...Oah!' So, you can just bite me. _Noob!_"

**Thanks for reading!**

**I thought of creating polls to decide what Yugi's and Yami's pen names should have been, but it was too late by the time I was ready to publish this, and I've never had much luck with polls, anyway. Maybe if anyone shows any interest, I'll create polls for the pen names of the other characters who will be showing up (you can read more about that on my blog).**


	5. Still Blocked?

**I've made Yami into a drama queen in this fic, I've realized. I find that amusing. *Cackles madly***

Yugi was still getting used to the fanfiction scene. Learning the code words that were thrown into fic descriptions was one of the quickest thing he mastered, if for no other reason than the preservation of what he'd come to find was his fragile mind. Certain combinations were often more than he could handle. He'd accidently read a oneshot (another term he'd learned) with 'OOC', 'crack', and 'yaoi' all combined into one. He hadn't been able to function normally for several hours afterwards.

Initially, Yugi had just gone to Yami for everything related to fanfiction. Then, Yami had gotten tired of him and just told him to look up the terms on the 'net. It had turned out there was a whole Wikipedia page devoted to what he needed to know and he'd bookmarked it. It had come in more and more useful as Yami incorporated the expressions into his daily speech, and Yugi had even considered printing it off and giving copies to his mother and grandfather so that they'd have a clue anymore when they tried to engage Yami in a conversation. Then, he'd realized that he didn't really want them knowing what 'shounen ai' and 'mpreg' were.

And, actually, it hadn't been necessary for the past few days. Yami, apparently, had writer's block. It had cut off any fanfiction-related jabber from him. For that matter, it had cut off any sort of talk from him at all. He'd shut down.

It had hit a few days ago, on the last Friday before spring break. Since that afternoon, Yami had hardly left the sofa in the living room for more than a few minutes at a time, his laptop ever-present at his side, waiting for the inspiration to kick in.

Yugi's mom thought he was depressed and was trying to coax him back to the land of the light and happy through the use of delicious pastries and soulful conversation starters.

Solomon thought that maybe the stresses of being in the present time had gotten to the pharaoh and was engaging him at every opportunity with talks about his archaeological digs in Egypt and how the younger generation these days were squandering their youth.

Yugi knew better and frankly thought that only a few days of Yami lying on the couch didn't necessitate his family bringing out the big guns to try and save him from the "pit of despair" he supposedly found himself in. It was spring break, anyway. Doing nothing while mindlessly watching TV was what they were supposed to do.

So, he had his own approach when it came to dealing with Yami at this point in time. He implemented it several times a day, in fact.

It was about three in the afternoon, now, and Yugi felt like it was time to go and check on the guy.

He pushed away from his desk, letting the rolling chair carry him halfway across his room. From there he walked across the hall, down the stairs, and to the doorway of the living room. Both his mom and grandpa had given Yami a break at the moment, maybe having realized that despite how much talking they did, Yami rarely spoke back.

An episode of Lucky Star was on and Yugi couldn't help but think how apt it was for the situation.

"Still blocked?" he asked.

"Yes. Blocked. Totally," was the monotone answer.

"Hm. Well, I'll see you later," Yugi said, turning away from the slothful scene in front of him.

"Later," Yami repeated, murmuring into the throw pillow that was propping up his head.

He was alive, he as responsive (if minimally), so his job was done. What else was he to check for when fanfiction was involved?

Yugi was on his way back upstairs when his grandfather caught him.

"Yugi!" he called. "Have you been in to see Yami? I think he's gotten worse since yesterday…"

Yugi found himself being ushered back into the living room.

"Please, talk to him," Grandpa Moto begged. "You're probably the only person who can reach him."

"Grandpa, there's nothing to _reach_," Yugi insisted. "There's nothing wrong with Yami. I told you, it's just this fanfiction thing getting to him. He thinks he has to update or else people will hate him or something."

"Well, that's a problem. Convince him it doesn't matter what those yahoos on the Internet think," Solomon ordered, worry threading his tone. "The Pharaoh's not from this time. He just might be more easily swayed than someone who grew up with computers and such."

Yugi refrained from pointing out that that category would also include his grandfather himself.

Sighing and resigning himself to at least putting on a show for Solomon's benefit, Yugi once again forayed into the room.

"…Still blocked?" He had a routine going for him that worked. Besides, what else was there to say?

"Yes. Blocked. Totally." Yami had a routine going for him as well.

"Um…" Yugi scratched the back of his head, trying to think of something to say that his mom or grandpa hadn't already tried and that wouldn't sound completely cheesy. He decided to just go straight to what was causing all the trouble in the first place.

"Is there a reason that you can't seem to work on anything? Did you get another flame or something like that?" Yugi asked, feeling kind of awkward talking about stuff like this out in "public."

"No."

"The ideas just aren't flowing, then?"

"Yeah."

"…Okay."

Yugi walked back to his grandpa, shrugging. Solomon didn't look all that impressed with Yugi's less than half-hearted attempts at drawing Yami out.

"I don't think it's anything we can help him with, Grandpa, really," Yugi tried to convince him.

"I'm still worried, Yugi. What if it's some sign of deeper emotional issues, like your mom was thinking?" Solomon pressed.

"It's nothing like that, Grandpa!" Yugi finally exploded, catching even Yami's attention for a fleeting moment before he turned back to the television. "It's _fanfiction!_"

* * *

Yugi came downstairs around three in the morning when he heard what sounded like the TV still going. It was Lucky Star anymore, if that was the case. Something with mecha now, maybe Evangelion.

It was, and Yami was still sagged full length into the couch cushions, his eyes glazed over and bloodshot from staring at the brightness of the television and laptop screens in the dark room for the past several hours.

"Still blocked?"

"Yes. Blocked. Totally."

"Hm. See you later. Goodnight."

"Later. 'Night."

**Thanks for reading! This has been my week actually, so it's been fun to share. As always, feel free to review!**


	6. Three Accounts

**A very brief follow-up to chapter five. I had to remove the "-ish" from "crackish" in the story description.**

"You _what?_" Yugi screeched. It was the last day of spring break and Yami had done the insane. The pharaoh just didn't seem to realize it.

"Look, it's not like you did it," Yami was trying to reason. "It's not your problem. It's not even a problem in the first place. Plus, it got me writing again," he pointed out, trying to get Yugi to see the bright side of this whole situation. And it was true. Yami had gone on quite the writing spree a day ago

The offhand effect that Yami was trying to cultivate was pretty much ruined though by his inability to take his eyes off the television currently playing 'Ouran High School Host Club' and turn them to observe Yugi's wrath, and also by the way he had his arms wrapped around his closed laptop, hugging it to him like a shield.

It was all the laptop's fault, Yugi decided, glaring at it and the blue and gold graphic Yami had ordered online to stick to the back in order to make it more personal and distinctive.

"You don't _need_ three accounts, Yami," Yugi gritted out.

"That's your opinion."

"That's everyone's opinion! Or it should be! What are you going to do with three accounts, really? You hardly even have one fic off the ground to support the account you already had. How are you going to manage three?" Yugi was _trying_ to be the voice of reason. Too bad Yami's mind and hearing were already clouded by his obsession.

Yami released one of his arms to wave his hand in dismissal. "I'll deal."

"You couldn't deal with _one_ flame, Yami, or even a week without inspiration. Not to mention your inability to sit through a class one an idea pops into your head." Yugi was getting tired of being the "jerk" in their relationship, but Yami was giving him in no choice. "How _exactly_ will you deal?"

Yami shrugged, still not removing his eyes from the antics of Tamaki, Haruhi, and the rest. "I have a bunch of ideas. Having three accounts is just a way to allow me to fuss with more ideas at once."

Yugi squeezed his eyes shut and rubbed a hand through his hair. "Exactly how many ideas do you have?"

Yami righted his laptop and opened the lid. It took about thirty seconds for him to log in and call up his fanfiction folder. He turned the PC around and proffered the screen to Yugi's distrustful gaze.

Yugi slowly approached and looked at the creations of Yami's mind… There were a _lot_ of them.

Yugi felt his lips twisting and his gut churning. He just had to admit it. "Alright, Yami. Maybe you do need more than one account," he conceded, mumbling the words.

Yugi started to walk away when he heard a quiet, nervous laugh behind him. He slowly turned back around. "_What?_"

"Well…" Yami was blushing. "Those weren't the ideas for all three accounts. They were just for the one account. _These_ are for—"

"_Yami, what the hell?_"

**Told you it was brief. Thanks for reading anyways! **

**Every now and then I wish someone who knew about fanfiction had been around to slap me when I did this (made three accounts). I've made my peace with it and actually quiet enjoy the freedom of having three accounts even though I tell everyone about them, but there have been times…**


	7. Mary Sue

**I don't know why I even bother to log out of my SillyQuill account anymore. It seems to be the only stuff that I can write right now. **

Yugi was having a boring day when he wrote _her_. He'd been thinking of one of his favorite anime that had recently ended when he'd started feeling that something seemed to be missing in it. The show needed something that would fill in the holes left by the other characters. Frankly, the main character needed a girlfriend. Was that so wrong to give?

Yugi's anonymous reviewer seemed to think so. The person seemed to think that Yugi had kicked the puppy that was the fandom, that because of him the space/time continuum was trashed, and that, thanks to Yugi and his OC that had only gotten one chapter's worth of a chance to prove herself, the apocalypse had begun. Never mind the four horsemen; Yugi's Mary Sue was the true portent of the world's doom.

'Mary Sue.' The term had been thrown around an awful lot during the awful anonymous review. Yugi hadn't even known what it meant and had had to look it up on the Internet before he could make heads or tails of what the reviewer had been complaining about. After he had, he had immediately wanted to fire back at the anon that, _no_, his character had _not_ been a Mary Sue. Yes, she'd been talented, and yes she'd been beautiful. She'd also been humble, yet brilliant, shy, yet self-confident. How else was she supposed to attract the main character, who she absolutely loved, but could never let herself be thought of as easy and so played coy?

Okay, so Yugi understood why people didn't like Mary Sues, and he understood that his character was maybe just a _tinge_ too perfect, but there was no way that his character was a Mary Sue.

He was sitting in front of the computer in his room, mulling over the reasons why she wasn't a Mary Sue and becoming more and more frustrated by his inability to contact the reviewer and let them know just how wrong they were in calling her one, when Yami walked in.

He had been of no help at all. Without reading the fic or the review, just listening as Yugi described both, his immediate advice had been to "delete the fic." Yugi had criticized his lack of empathy or support and Yami had told him that if there was even a hint of Mary Sue-ness for someone to pick up on, the fic had to go.

Yugi sighed as Yami came to stand behind him. "Well?" was all Yami asked.

Yugi sighed again in defeat. "How do I delete it?"

Yugi could practically _hear_ Yami smiling. "You've made the right choice. It was a doomed fic, Yugi. Go to Manage Stories under Publish and—"

"No," Yugi interrupted. "The review. I want to delete the review. How do I?"

"…That would be very immature, Yugi," Yami replied.

Yugi whipped around in his desk chair so fast to face him that he felt something in his neck pop. "Excuse me? _Who_ was it who trashed his room and wouldn't so much as believe that the sun would rise the next day when they got a flame? Oh, wait, I know who that was. It was you!"

Yami looked down his nose at his pint-size doppelganger. "That flame was a groundless series of insults. From what you've told me of this one, it's not. You actually wrote a Mary Sue. You deserve the proper punishment."

Yugi didn't even have the heart to roll his eyes at Yami's comment. The review had actually hurt him. Maybe, just _maybe_, his OC was a Mary Sue. He really hadn't known. And now not only did he feel bad about writing her in the first place, but he also had someone else flinging his failure in his face, hating and even slightly mocking him for it.

Even though he'd been bemoaning the fact that he couldn't respond to the review, he was glad that it was anonymous. Anonymous he could delete. He would never have to look at it again.

Of course, that didn't mean it hadn't scarred its way into his brain, completely tainting the memory of what should have been his fun first fic and making him doubt his writing forever after.

"Just tell me how to get rid of it, Yami," he begged.

He heard a sharp inhalation of air and looked up to see Yami actually looking insulted by Yugi's failure to look at this review as a learning experience or whatever value it was Yami saw in the unnecessarily cruel feedback. Yami wasn't the only one to have received a flame in this house, Yugi thought.

"Frankly, Yugi, writing a Mary Sue is a very _noob_ thing to do," Yami haughtily proclaimed before turning to make his departure from the room.

"Well, I kind of _am_ a noob," Yugi muttered to himself, thinking that if maybe the anon had seen how recently Yugi had joined and that this was his first fic, they may not have been so hard on him. Pity for the noob.

…Noob.

Yugi feverishly spun around and began the process of pulling the anonymous review was. Yami hadn't been using his new favorite word aloud as often since Yugi had turned it into his pen name, though Yugi had noticed that it was still cropping up fairly often in his fanfiction writing.

Yugi found the anonymous review and, despite how painful it was, began to reread it, counting every time _that_ word showed up. Seven was the grand total. The review itself was only nine sentences, and only two of them didn't end with the anon calling Yugi a noob.

No. Not the anon…

Yugi sprinted form his room and nearly busted down the door to Yami's room where the pharaoh was grinning smugly at his laptop's screen where the anonymous review was proudly displayed.

"_Yami!_" he snapped.

"I couldn't let you go o writing that trash, Yugi," Yami immediately defended, jumping protectively in front of his precious computer. "In a few weeks, you'll be _thanking_ me!"

Yugi just let out a wordless scream before picking up an empty plastic cup that Yami had on his dresser beside the door and chucking it full force at Yami.

Yami dodged and shouted, "Yugi, _gods_, get a grip!" He got one on one of Yami's textbooks and hurled that too. Then a day-calendar that smacked Yami between the eyes.

"_Yugi_, stop being such a noob and—!"

Yugi hurled himself at Yami and they both went tumbling down.

One of them, maybe both of them, caught their foot in the power cord leading from Yami's laptop. Their fighting stopped when they heard the crunch of plastic on the hardwood floor of Yami's floor that they had just toppled onto too. The screen with the noob-filled anonymous review Yami had given Yugi flickered a few feet away from them before going a stark, non-reflective pitch-black.

**Thanks for reading! Oh, the drama! (Have you all noticed how almost all of these chapters tend to end with Yugi and Yami yelling at/fighting with each other?)**

**This chapter isn't meant to bash people who write Mary Sues, but almost actually to point out the abuse those authors have to deal with. Almost everyone seems to write a Mary Sue at some point in time, and it's terribly crushing to have someone scream at you over the Internet about what a horrible, revolting thing you've done when it really just seems to be part of the evolution of a person's writing. I'm not defending the use of Mary Sues (they are ****very**** painful to read), but I know how much it hurts to not necessarily realized what you've done and then have someone come down hard on you and your character as if your goal was to ruin the fandom all along. Just a thought (don't come down hard on me for it). **


	8. Yami's Thing Turned Yugi's

**Things suddenly got a bit serious in this chapter. Sorry about that. Things should be getting back to normal by the next chapter (which I actually will be needing your guys' help with for something).**

Yugi's mother and grandfather had refused to buy Yami a new laptop. He understood that computers weren't cheap, and he even understood, despite how degrading it seemed, that they were trying to make this a learning and disciplinary experience for both him and Yugi.

What he _didn't_ understand was why only he was really being punished for something that was _entirely_ Yugi's fault. A lecture didn't cut it. It didn't keep Yugi from just returning to his room and his own computer while Yami mourned over the remains of his. Yugi's life went on as usual. He went to school, met with their friends, and returned home to do homework and log in to his fanfiction account as if nothing had happened.

Yami's life as _over_. He went to school and etcetera, and he'd even been given permission to use the family computer in the living room when no one else needed it, which they rarely did, but that didn't cut it. His life had been erased when his beloved laptop had hit the floor. Some stuff had been recoverable, but not everything. All the idea that Yami had stored up for each of his three accounts, the nearly complete chapter of his current chapter-fic on his main account, and the original documents of everything he'd published so far were gone.

Yami refused to talk to Yugi until the brat apologized for what he did to Yami's baby. Until he recognized all the potential that was now just a faint echo in Yami's mind that he'd destroyed, and all over an anonymous review that really had been for Yugi's own good. The boy had written a Mary Sue; he had to learn! But Yugi refused to acknowledge the helpful sentiment that had been Yami's motivator. _He_ thought that Yami had done it out of spite and now refused to speak to Yami too.

If Yami hadn't written it out of spite then, he would now.

He wished he'd never introduced Yugi to fanfiction. He wished he'd kept it quiet from everyone else in the house, hadn't muttered a single word about it. It would get him less exasperated reactions and eye-rolls from them if he had. Staying in the fanfiction closet would have allowed him to slip off for a few hours every day or so, under the guise of using the internet as a medium with which to fully acquaint himself with the new, high-tech, modern world he found himself in, and just revel in his secret identity as an author of fanfics.

Instead, within a few weeks of finding the host site, Yami had rushed to Yugi who happened to be in the shop area with the rest of his family and just spazzed all over the place about the glorious thing he'd discovered, how he'd already gotten an account made and a chapter published, and that a few people had already read it. Neither Solomon nor Mrs. Moto had really seemed to follow along, but Yugi had smiled encouragingly the whole time and nodded in all the right places, seeming genuinely that Yami had found something to cling to…

No. if Yami could go back again and lock himself in his room that first day of publishing he would have, just to keep himself from blabbing to the thieving, _false_ creature that Yugi really was. The punk had taken the one thing that had made Yami feel like he was special and had a place in this world and stolen it right out from under him. He'd even taken 'noob' and put it in his pen name. 'Noob' was _Yami's_ thing!

'_Mostly I think I'll just be reading and reviewing your stuff_' indeed! Yugi had just used Yami as a stepping stone into the new world Yami had found and was now claiming it as his own.

It might not hurt so much if Yugi wasn't doing so much better at it than Yami was. True, Yami had yet to write a fic that didn't garner a few reviews. But Yugi's single fic, the one with the Mary Sue, already had more reviews than all of Yami's on all three of his accounts combined. And as far as Yami could tell on his daily check-ins, only one of them even seemed to broach the subject of Yugi's ever so perfect OC and that person had continued to review each consecutive chapter with alacrity. It was like no one saw the hideous, out-of-proportionately flawless character-elephant in the room!

Yugi didn't deserve his fame, and he didn't deserve to be able to throw it in Yami's face by managing to consistently update his fic with chapters that Yami's flame should have stopped from coming while Yami was stuck with the out-of-date desktop downstairs where Yugi's family could keep an eye on him and make sure he did his homework before anything else and when Yami had absolutely no foundation or motivation to work off of.

Yami wished he'd never gotten his own body.

"How's everything going, Yami?" Yugi's mom asked from behind him.

"I've finished my homework," Yami dutifully exhaled, flipping through his Algebra book and then closing the cover.

"Well, that's good. By the end of the semester you might even get your grades back up to where they were before you got interested in that writing thing," she commented before heading for the stairs.

'_That writing thing._' That's all his month-long passion had become. Now it was Yugi's passion and Yami just felt like quitting. Maybe he could find something else to do that would make him stand out. Something conniving little Yugi couldn't steal and make his own. Dueling was out because it wasn't like Yami and Yugi could both share the same accomplishments, and the hell if Yami was going to start all over again while letting Yugi take all the credit for what they'd both done. Maybe some sort of sport. Yugi was too much of a shrimp to ever try to steal something like that from him. But if the squirt ever went through a growth-spurt, then Yami would be screwed.

"Have you and Yugi talked yet?" Mrs. Moto asked, having yet to leave the room. Her brow was crinkled in concern.

"No." Yami was not going to be drawn into a heart-to-heart over _that_. He'd end up screaming something about her son that would no doubt get him thrown out of the Moto house for excessive use of foul language. But maybe that was the sort of restart he needed.

"Pity," she sighed. "Well, you've done your homework, so feel free to do what you want on the computer. I don't think Father-in-law or I will be needing it any time today."

Yami nodded and half-heartedly rolled himself over to the archaic desktop as she watched just to appease her until she turned away and began ascending the stairs.

Just as a matter of habit, Yami opened a web browser and signed into his email, though it took forever for the pages to load.

Yami blinked and then slammed himself back in his chair, almost causing him to topple over if he hadn't grabbed onto the desk at the last moment. His inbox was overwhelmed with favorites, alerts, and reviews. Yami had to double-check that it was his email before he dared to believe that all of that wonderful bounty was for him. Cautiously, he checked the other emails he'd made for his other accounts, thinking to save the good stuff for later. They were packed too. Yami felt a fanboy squeal forming when—

Huh. That was odd.

Everything was from a single user. A user who alerted to the chapter-fics, didn't to the oneshots, and favorite and reviewed _everything_.

And, besides that, the user asked questions in their observant, adoring reviews. Glorious, wonderful, orgasm-inducing questions! Ones that weren't stupid or obvious or bland. They wanted to know more about the story; they wanted to know about Yami's process. The person had already visited the blog Yami had made after he'd made his three accounts so as to address any issues with updates and scheduling in general, and they offered their condolences for the loss of Yami's laptop and files, but they hoped that Yami would remember what he'd wanted to do and find the inspiration to make them better than what he'd originally had planned.

Yami found himself smiling. Not just smiling, but grinning from ear to bloody ear. He hesitated as he held the mouse hovering over the reply URL, but then clicked and dived in. It didn't matter if he lost some of his mystique with how enthusiastic he was being or if the reviewer might think Yami was some desperate, stalker-type (which he had to admit, he was close to being at the moment). Yami just let his fingers fly across the keys with the same happiness and abandon as when he'd written that first chapter of his first fic.

**Thanks for reading! All it really takes is that one follower to get things rolling. **

**So the thing I need from you guys for the next chapter and beyond is pen names for other characters in the ****Yu-Gi-Oh!**** universe. I'm not going to have a poll, so please leave your suggestions in a review or PM. I need ones for Tea, Ryou **_**and**_** Bakura jointly, Serenity, and Mokuba for now. Others will be required for later. I'd like to avoid YGOTAS references, but otherwise go nuts!**


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